Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar on Wednesday said there is pressure within the party that his brother and Bangalore Rural MP DK Suresh must contest against BJP’s R Ashoka at Padmanabhanagar.
The BJP has fielded Ashoka against Shivakumar in Kanakapura. Also, Ashoka will contest from his Padmanabhanagar segment.
"There's pressure to field Suresh," Shivakumar said, specifying that Congress has already given the Padmanabhanagar ticket to V Raghunath Naidu.
This could be a plan to tie down Ashoka at Padmanabhanagar just as the BJP’s wants to keep Shivakumar busy in Kanakapura.
"Politics isn't football. It's a game of chess that both of us are playing," Shivakumar said on the BJP's decision to field Ashoka against him. "I'm not new to fights in politics. In 1985, I fought against HD Deve Gowda. I've also fought against HD Kumaraswamy," he said.
Shivakumar denied talk that Congress has fielded a "weak" candidate against Ashoka in Padmanabhanagar. "I don't have any secret understanding with anybody," he said.
Explaining the political arithmetic, Shivakumar said Padmanabhanagar is home to the highest number of Naidus in Bengaluru. "In the last election, JD(S) fielded a Naidu candidate (VK Gopal) while we had a Vokkaliga. We couldn't succeed and the Naidu came second," he said, justifying the Congress ticket to Raghunath Naidu.
Shivakumar claimed that Ashoka would lose the election this time "because he is facing dissidence".
Reacting to the idea of Suresh contesting against him, Ashoka said: "Anybody can contest. It's their party's decision. I'm following my party's decision. It's a democracy."
Vinay Kulkarni against Bommai?
The Congress has not named its candidate against Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in Shiggaon.
Shivakumar said former minister Vinay Kulkarni is "a serious, probable" candidate for Shiggaon. The party has already named Kulkarni as the Dharwad candidate. "We will discuss with leaders," Shivakumar added.